Main Idea: People are transformed by God to create one power that nothing can stop.

On October 24, 2005 a 94-year-old African American woman died in Detroit, Michigan. Her funeral service, days later, lasted more than seven hours and was attended by over 4000 people, including 36 political, business and religious leaders and a 220 member choir. Was this some dignitary or business leader or some great benefactor of society? No, it was a woman who one day, December 1, 1955, decided she was not going to give up her seat on a bus to a white man. Her name was Rosa Parks.

It happened in the late afternoon of that December day in Montgomery, Alabama. Rosa Parks had been working at the Montgomery Park Department store ironing shirts. She got on the bus to go home, sat in the area designated for "colored" people when a white man got on the bus and had no place to sit. Rosa Parks was told to get up and allow the white man to have her seat, as was the law in Alabama at the time. On that day, that one day, why that day of all the days, she refused. At the end of the route Rosa Parks was arrested and jailed.

Word spread quickly of Rosa’s action and it galvanized the African American population of Montgomery. They decided that they would boycott the bus system of Montgomery and walk to work until the law was changed. For 381 days the buses of Montgomery were virtually empty. The boycott ended only after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Montgomery’s segregation law in 1956. But by then Rosa Park’s refusal to get up launched a force for change that shook and transformed our nation.

Charles Adams, pastor of Hartford Memorial Baptist Church, said it beautifully in his prayer at Rosa Parks’ funeral, "Custom said, ‘Get up!’ Society said, ‘Get up.’ Politics said, ‘Get up.’ The bus driver said, ‘Get up.’ But you gave her the power to stay seated. She heard your voice." (USA Today) One woman, one decision, one life forced our nation to confront one of its most visible sins against humanity. She shows us the power or one.

One doesn’t seem very powerful. One cent, one dollar, one choice, one life, one heart or one person by himself or herself doesn’t seem able to do very much. Yet we have seen countless times how that the power of one can do more than we ever dreamed possible. Before the creation of this world He chose to create one people, the church of Jesus Christ that would be the greatest force for change and transformation that the world would ever know. It is that power of one that we celebrate today at First Baptist Church.

Take a look around you this morning. There is a great deal that is different about us. We don’t all look the same. Some of us are young and some of us are not. Some of us are from here and some of us are not. We have different jobs. We went to different schools. We have different houses. We have different cars. We have different political views. We are different races, our faces are different colors. We have different families. We have different opinions. We have different children. We speak English, Armenian, Arabic, two dialects of Chinese, one Indian dialect and Spanish. When you look around, you begin to wonder, because we are so different, how in the world could we ever be a force for change and transformation in a world that desperately needs hope and life? The only way is through the power of one.

The verses that you have heard repeatedly this morning tell us of the power of one. They tell us that people, people of all kinds, have been transformed by God to create one power that nothing can stop. Ephesians 4 begins a new direction in Paul’s writing of his letter. In chapters 1-3 he has provided a great deal of theological language to encourage the Ephesian Christians. Then in chapters 4-6 he tells them how to apply that or live it out. So be begins chapter 4 with these words,

"Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God. Be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other's faults because of your love. Always keep yourselves united in the Holy Spirit, and bind yourselves together with peace."

What is interesting in verse 3 is that the one thing they were to do above everything else was to keep themselves united and bind themselves together with peace. Paul knew that their unity in spite of their diversity was going to be the key to their survival in a world hostile to their faith in Christ. Notice he says that they are the one who must do the uniting and the binding. It was their responsibility. It wasn’t a given or an automatic reality.

At any time in the life of a church there are innumerable things that can divide a church. We all have things we like or dislike, agree with or don’t agree with. Most of the time churches divide over persuasions rather than principle. They divide over tradition rather than truth. When there is division over anything, it is imperative that we accept that we will never achieve uniformity in all things. Yet we are to do everything within our power to seek for unity. If I ask you to agree with me on everything before we can work or serve together, then all we will have are billions of one- member churches. You don’t agree with your wife on everything or your husband on everything yet you find a way to hammer out something called marriage that lasts for 30, 40, 50 and 60 years!

Does that mean we settle for comfortable isolation? Does it mean that we never risk being challenged or disagreeing with someone for fear that we will destroy the unity of a church? No, it means that as believers we choose to work, sacrifice, give, talk, think and pray to keep ourselves united in the Holy Spirit and bind ourselves together in the bond of peace. Doing church has never been about everybody nodding their heads in agreement but about working together to achieve the power of one.

For 153 years this church has seen its share of things that could have divided her, crippled her, destroyed her and left her irrelevant for the ages. Yet, instead, at its core there has been a spirit that has prayed, sweated, cried, labored and sacrificed so today we can gather in our vast diversity and celebrate our unity, the power of one as the church of Jesus Christ. We are not a perfect church but being the church has never been about perfection. It is about planting the flag of the cross of Jesus Christ in every rebel heart that beats on this planet! Whatever has to be done, whatever has to be sacrificed, whatever must be surrendered for that to happen is why we do all we can to keep ourselves united and bound together. That is the power of one.

With all the diversity among the people called the church of Jesus Christ and with all that is different about First Baptist Church, what is there that we share that can give us the power of one? Paul told the Ephesians that they shared the power of one identity, the power of one experience and the power of one reality. Those same things that they shared are the same things we share that give us the power of one!

Paul tells these believers and ourselves that we share the power of one identity (Eph. 4:4). He says, "We are all one body, we have the same Spirit, and we have all been called to the same glorious future." My identity is on the one hand very simple yet on the other very complex. My identity is made up of the way I look, the way I act and the background of my life. It is somewhat like the narrow end of a funnel through which so much of me is poured. Yet I am more than the way I appear for there are things that might be altered about my appearance or my actions or my personality that cannot change my identity. There are things that make me "me" that are the nonnegotiables in my life. It is my identity that makes me who I am and to lose that is to lose my significance and my value.

Our identity as the church is based upon three nonnegotiables that make us who we are. The first is that we are "one body." Paul has used this analogy in his letter to the Corinthians. There he described the different types of people that made up the church like different parts of our body. Yet while every part is different, every part is valuable to the rest of the body. He says, "So it is with Christ." (I Cor. 12:12).

We are the body of Christ and we are one body. We are all different in our gifts, talents and abilities but every member is a member of this body. To be a member of this church is more than filling out some paper work, coming to the meetings and paying your dues. It is knowing that I am part of one group of people to whom I belong and that I belong there because of the person of Jesus Christ. This church is my identity.

Next, he says, "We have the same Spirit." He is meaning here the Holy Spirit who lives within our lives individually and collectively. It is the Holy Spirit who gives our church life. In the same way that you and I have physical life flowing through our body that enables us to breath, think and act so God’s Holy Spirit comes into our church and gives us life. He is the source of our breath, our thoughts and our actions. Without his life we are nothing more than any other human organization. With his life we are equipped to live, serve and transform our world. The life we have is because we share one life—the life of the Holy Spirit.

We are one body, share the same life source but we all possess the same ultimate goal. We are all "called to the same glorious future." These words tell us that we all share the same destination and the same destiny. At whatever moment you bowed the knee of your heart to the rule of Jesus Christ you had one direction for the rest of time. That direction is to spend an eternity with God in heaven. Therefore, because we, as believers, are all headed in the same direction it causes us to minimize our distinctions, prioritize our differences, maximize our focus and intensify our energies. We are all called to the same glorious future. Who are we as the First Baptist Church? We are one body with one life, all going in one direction. Regardless of our diversity, that is our identity!

We not only share the power of the same identity, we share the power of the same experience. (Eph. 4:5). Paul continues by saying, "There is only one Lord, one faith, one baptism." An experience is something that happens to you personally. It is not something you read about or write about or imagine. It is something that happens to you in real life, real time and space. Persons who have the same things happen to them and share that are united in ways that others are not. Women who share the experience of breast cancer are bound together in unique and indivisible ways. An experience is a valuable power when it is shared.

Persons who make up the church of Jesus Christ are persons who all share the same experience. What is that experience? It is the experience of surrendering their life to the rule of Jesus Christ, receiving his gift of eternal life by faith and demonstrating that through baptism. Persons who make up the church are persons who experienced at some point in their life personally surrendering the will and control of their life to the Lord Jesus Christ. There is none other to whom we give or yield our allegiance or loyalty. They are as well persons who have personally experienced the trusting of their life to Christ by faith. They know that it is nothing they can do to earn, deserve or pay for that experience. They are as well persons who have personally experienced being baptized by immersion in water as an expression of their surrender and faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.

As a Baptist church, we believe that you must personally experience the surrender of your life, the trusting of faith and the expression of baptism to be a part of this church. Why? Because it is an experience we all share. The experience we share together gives us a power that unites us and binds us into the power of one. I believe that our generation stands waiting on what those who discover the power of one experience can truly do for Christ. I refuse to believe that we are living in the days when the people of God and the church of Jesus Christ are merely the relic of some past civilization. I believe we area people who share the same Lord, same faith, same confession and that experience gives us a power that is unstoppable! That is the power of one!

The power of one identity, the power of one experience but we also share the power of one reality (Eph. 4:6). Paul says that the reality we all share is that "there is only one God and Father, who is over us all, and in us all and living through us all." Last Saturday while doing surveys on Huntington I had a discussion with someone who didn’t share the same reality that we share. He believed quite strongly that all of this that we celebrate today is nothing more than the product of creative imagination. He was convinced that there was no reality of God to be found anywhere and in anyone. He felt deeply that there is nothing and no one "out there" or "in here." No matter what I said, it was clear that we did not share the same reality – the reality of God.

Paul says that those who know the power of one know the power of the one reality of God. He describes God as "Father." God, regardless of the positive or negative aspects of any earthly father is our perfect Father. He is so because we have entered into a Father/child relationship with him through the person of Jesus Christ. It is that relationship that makes God fully and completely real to us. Until that happens, God is distant, remote, unknown and "unreal." Yet when we enter a relationship with him through Christ he becomes close, personal, familiar and "real." It is the reality of that relationship that gives us a recognition of God being in control of our life, being in our life and expressing himself through our life. He is real to us.

When those who share the reality of God gather there is power. In the Old Testament God demonstrated his reality when his people gathered. When the people of Israel gathered around Mt. Sinai he showed them the reality of his power. When they gathered at the Tabernacle he showed them the reality of his power. When they gathered at the Temple he showed them the reality of his power. In the New Testament he showed his people the reality of his power when he gave them his Spirit. God has always longed to show the reality of his power to his people. When he does, there is power.

We stand today as a people needing God to show the reality of his power. There is no reluctance on his part for he longs to demonstrate his sovereign rule over us, his majestic presence in us, and his mighty actions through us! To a world that says, "There is no God," we are a people who share the reality that there is "one God and Father, who is over us all and in us all and living through us all." Because we share that reality, the world can know the power of one!

Today is a day I have dreamed about for months. During this year I became convinced that in order to keep alive the flame of Christ in our heart as a church that we must come together as one body. Today we have done that. Today we have gathered. We have worshipped, prayed, sung and shared as one body. Today we know the power of one. But it is tomorrow that needs the power of one.

The power of one will leave this place and go back to homes, schools, jobs and lives that need the power of what we are today. The power of one will go back out to the communities of our world where there is hurt, hopelessness, desperation, heartache, loneliness and despair. The power of one will come back next week to the places of worship and service that make up First Baptist Church because we are one. But will we come alone? Is there not some person who needs the power of one?

What will we do with the power of one? We stand concluding our fifth year of the 21^st century. We do not know what the next five, ten, fifteen or fifty years hold for us. What we do know is that we have the power of one identity as Christ’s body through the Holy Spirit, the power of one experience of salvation by the Lord Jesus Christ and the power of the reality of one God over, in, and through us all. If that is our power then what can stop us? Our world waits to see a people transformed by the power of one!

Sunday, November 20, 2005

Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor

First Baptist Church

Jonesboro, Arkansas

btippit@fbcjonesboro.org